On this day: September 18

2013: Former boxing champion Ken Norton, who rose to the top of the boxing world in 1973 by outdueling Muhammad Ali, dies at age 70 in Henderson, Nevada. Norton had been in poor health for several years after sustaining a series of strokes. He was best known for his 12-round victory over Ali on March 31, 1973, when he famously broke Ali's jaw. With the victory, he became only the second man to defeat a peak Ali as a professional (after Joe Frazier, who won a 15-round unanimous decision against Ali in 1971). Norton and Ali would fight twice more, with Ali narrowly winning both return bouts. Norton also went on to briefly hold the World Boxing Council heavyweight title in the late 1970s, being awarded the title when Leon Spinks refused to fight him as a mandatory challenger in favor of a rematch with Ali, whom Spinks had beaten for the title. Norton lost the WBC title in his first defense of it, a 15-round split decision loss to Larry Holmes in 1978.

2009: The 72-year run of the soap opera "The Guiding Light" ends with the broadcast of the show's final episode. The show, credited by the "Guinness Book of World Records" as the longest running drama in television history, started with a 15-year run on radio before moving to television in 1952.

2004: Film director Russ Meyer, known primarily for writing and directing a series of successful low-budget sexploitation films that featured campy humor, sly satire and large-breasted women such as "Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" and "Vixen!," dies of complications of pneumonia at age 82 in Hollywood Hills, California.

2001: The first mailing of anthrax letters from Trenton, New Jersey, in the 2001 anthrax attacks takes place. Letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to several news media offices and two Democratic U.S. senators, killing five people and infecting 17 others. Federal prosecutors in August 2008 named scientist Bruce Edwards Ivins, who had committed suicide a month earlier, the sole culprit in the crime.

1996: Roger Clemens of the Boston Red Sox ties his own major-league record with 20 strikeouts in a game against the Detroit Tigers at Tiger Stadium.

1994: Ken Burn's nine-part documentary "Baseball" premieres on PBS.

1987: The movie "Fatal Attraction," starring Michael Douglas, Glenn Close and Anne Archer, premieres in theaters. The movie ended up being the second highest grossing film of the year in the United States and received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actress for Close and Best Supporting Actress for Archer.

1984: Joe Kittinger becomes the first person to fly a gas balloon alone across the Atlantic Ocean.

1983: The members of rock band Kiss officially appear in public without makeup for the first time during an appearance on MTV, which coincided with the release of the band's new album, "Lick It Up."

1979: The Eagles release the single "Heartache Tonight." The song, from the band's "The Long Run" album, peaked for one week in November 1979 at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, sold more than 1 million copies and won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. It was also the last time the group topped the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

1977: Voyager I takes the first photograph of the Earth and the Moon together.

1975: Patty Hearst is arrested after a year on the FBI Most Wanted List. The newspaper heiress was kidnapped from a San Francisco apartment on Feb. 4, 1974, by the leftist group Symbionese Liberation Army. While initially their captive, she later announced she was joining the group of her own free will and took part in a bank robbery with them. She would end up being convicted in March 1976 and sentenced to seven years in prison, although her sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter and she was released in February 1979. In 2001, she received a full pardon from President Bill Clinton.

1975: Actor and comedian Jason Sudeikis, best known for "Saturday Night Live" and movies like "Hall Pass," "Horrible Bosses" and "We're the Millers," is born in Fairfax, Virginia.

1973: Actor James Marsden, best known for movies such as "X-Men," "Hop," "Hairspray," "27 Dresses" and "Enchanted," is born in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

1971: Cyclist Lance Armstrong, who won the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times, but was later disqualified from those races over doping offenses, is born in Plano, Texas.

1971: Actress Jada Pinkett Smith, the wife of fellow actor Will Smith and who is known for roles in such movies as "The Nutty Professor" and "Menace II Society," is born in Baltimore, Maryland.

1970: Guitar legend Jimi Hendrix is found dead in a London apartment at the age of 27. The official cause of death was inhalation of vomit after barbiturate intoxication.

1965: The sitcom "I Dream of Jeannie," which featured Barbara Eden as a 2,000-year-old genie and Larry Hagman as an astronaut who becomes her master, debuts. The show would run for five seasons and produce 139 episodes.

1963: The sitcom "The Patty Duke Show," starring Patty Duke in a dual role as "identical cousins," premieres.

1961: Actor James Gandolfini, best known for his portrayal of mob boss Tony Soprano on HBO's "The Sopranos," is born in Westwood, New Jersey. The actor, who also appeared in movies such as "True Romance," "Get Shorty" and "Zero Dark Thirty," died from a heart attack at age 51 in Rome, Italy, on June 19, 2013.

1960: Fidel Castro arrives in New York City as the head of the Cuban delegation to the United Nations.

1959: Hall of Fame second baseman Ryne Sandberg, who spent the majority of his 16-year career with the Chicago Cubs, is born in Spokane, Washington. The 10-time All-Star and nine-time Gold Glove winner won the 1984 National League MVP award and his career .989 fielding percentage is a major-league record at second base.

1954: Basketball Hall of Fame guard Dennis Johnson, who won three NBA titles, is born in San Pedro, California. Johnson led the Seattle SuperSonics to their only NBA championship in 1979, winning the NBA Finals MVP Award, and won two more with the Boston Celtics in 1984 and 1986. He died of a heart attack at age 52 on Feb. 22, 2007.

1952: Basketball coach Rick Pitino, who has been coaching since 1987, mostly in college but also with two short stints in the NBA with the New York Knicks and Boston Celtics, is born in New York City. Pitino won NCAA titles with the University of Kentucky in 1996 and the University of Louisville in 2013 and also holds the distinction of being the only men's coach in NCAA history to lead three different schools (Providence, Kentucky, and Louisville) to a Final Four.

1951: The science-fiction movie "The Day the Earth Stood Still" premieres in New York City.

1951: Singer-songwriter and rock musician Dee Dee Ramone, best known as founding member, songwriter, and bassist for punk rock band the Ramones, is born Douglas Glenn Colvin in Fort Lee, Virginia. Ramone was the band's most prolific lyricist and songwriter, writing many of the band's most well-known songs, such as "53rd & 3rd," "Commando," "Rockaway Beach" and "Poison Heart." He struggled with drug addiction for most of his life, particularly heroin, and died of a heroin overdose on June 5, 2002.

1951: The movie "A Streetcar Named Desire," starring Marlin Brando and Vivien Leigh and directed by Elia Kazan, premieres in Beverly Hills, California. The movie would end up earning 12 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and nominations for its director and two stars. Leigh ended up winning for Best Actress as one of the four Oscars ultimately awarded to the film, including wins for Best Supporting Actor (Karl Malden), Best Supporting Actress (Kim Hunter) and Best Art Direction.

1947: The National Security Act of 1947 takes effect, making the United States Air Force an independent branch of the armed forces (previously it had been part of the U.S. Army) and formally establishing the National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency.

1944: The British submarine HMS Tradewind torpedoes the Japanese cargo ship Junyo Maru, which, unknown to the Tradewind's commander, was carrying 4,200 Javanese slave laborers and 2,300 Allied prisoners of war. It was the world's greatest sea disaster at the time with 5,620 dead.

1939: Actor and singer Frankie Avalon, a teen idol in the 1950s and 1960s, is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Avalon charted more than 30 Billboard singles, including the No. 1 hits "Venus" and "Why." He also teamed with Annette Funicello in the mid-1960s for "beach party" comedy films such as "Beach Party" and "Beach Blanket Bingo."

1933: Actor Robert Blake, most known for his role as a child actor in the "Our Gang" shorts and as an adult for "In Cold Blood" and the TV series "Baretta" (pictured), is born in Nutley, New Jersey. Blake was also tried and acquitted in 2005 of the 2001 murder of his wife, although he was later found liable in civil court for her wrongful death.

1933: Hockey Hall of Famer Scotty Bowman, the former NHL coach who holds the record for most wins in league history, with 1,244 wins in the regular season and 223 in the Stanley Cup playoffs, is born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He coached the St. Louis Blues, Montreal Canadiens, Buffalo Sabres, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Detroit Red Wings, winning five Stanley Cups with the Canadiens in the 1970s, another with the Penguins in 1992, and three more with the Red Wings in 1997, 1998 and 2002.

1928: Juan de la Cierva makes the first autogyro crossing of the English Channel.

1927: Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting System makes its debut with a network broadcast over 16 radio stations of a presentation by the Howard Barlow Orchestra from flagship station WOR in Newark, New Jersey. The network's name would later be changed to CBS.

1919: Fritz Pollard becomes the first black athlete to play professional football for a major team, the Akron Pros. In 1920, the team would join the newly founded American Professional Football Association, later renamed the National Football League, and Pollard would help lead them to the league's first crown. The following year he became the NFL's first black coach.

1906: A typhoon and accompanying tsunami kill an estimated 10,000 people in Hong Kong.

1905: Actress Greta Garbo, best known for movies such as "Ninotchka," "Anna Christie," "Anna Karenina" and "Grand Hotel," is born under the birth name Greta Lovisa Gustafsson in Stockholm, Sweden. Garbo, an international star and icon during Hollywood's silent and classic periods, was nominated for three Academy Awards during her career. She died of pneumonia and renal failure at the age of 84 on April 15, 1990.

1873: The Philadelphia-based bank Jay Cooke & Company declares bankruptcy, triggering a series of bank failures in what became known as the Panic of 1873. The resulting international economic depression in both Europe and the United States would last until 1879 and be known as the "Great Depression" until the 1930s.

1870: The Old Faithful Geyser is observed and named by Henry D. Washburn during the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition to Yellowstone.

1851: The New-York Daily Times, which later becomes The New York Times, is published for the first time.

1850: The U.S. Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. The law declared that all runaway slaves be brought back to their masters. Since any suspected slave was not eligible for a trial, this led to many free blacks being conscripted into slavery as they had no rights in court and could not defend themselves against accusations.

1837: Tiffany and Co. is founded by Charles Lewis Tiffany and Teddy Young in New York City as Tiffany, Young and Ellis. The store was initially branded a "stationery and fancy goods emporium." The name would be shortened to Tiffany & Co. in 1853 when Charles Tiffany took control, and the firm's emphasis on jewelry was established.

1793: The first cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol building is laid by George Washington.

1789: Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton negotiates and secures the first loan for the United States. The Temporary Loan of 1789, which was used to pay the salaries of the president, senators, representatives and officers of the first Congress, would be repaid on June 8, 1790, at the sum of $191,608.81.

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